Prague - The Czech Republic's New World Resources (NWR) mining company, owner of the OKD coal miner, reported a EUR 395.7 million net loss for the first half of 2013, according to unaudited financial results published on NWR's website.
In the same period in 2012, the company posted a EUR 35 million profit.
According to board chairman Gareth Penny, the bad financial results were caused above all by low coal prices, which decreased the accounting value of NWR's mining assets in total by EUR 307 million.
"Even though we are starting to see the first signs of price stabilization and there are also good news coming from the German market, we do not believe that the boom from the years 2008 and 2011 may happen again anytime soon," said Penny.
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The document shows that the company's revenue in the first half of 2013 was EUR 493 million, a 29 percent drop from the same period last year. EBITDA dropped from last year's profit of EUR 158 million to a loss of EUR 40 million this year.
NWR announced in the first quarter that it decided to offer its OKK coking plant for sale due to the weak financial performance. The half year report says that talks on the sale are still ongoing.
Poland's JSW confirmed two weeks ago that it is interested in buying the asset. NWR financial executive Marek Jelinek told Bloomberg that the company expects to conclude the sale by the end of this year.
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Moreover, the report added that it is no longer possible to continue the operation of the Paskov mine. "As the sale of Paskov seems unlikely now, we are evaluating other solutions, including a temporary or permanent closure of the mine. No final decision has been made yet."
According to the Patria website, the NWR chief executive said that the mine will keep operating for the entire year 2014.
The company has implemented cost cutting measures worth EUR 60 million in the first half of the year, said the report.
This year the company plans to mine between nine and ten million tons of coal and produce 700,000 tons of coking coal.
NWR, headquartered in Amsterdam, is a leading mining company in Central Europe and one of the largest industrial holding companies in the Czech Republic. BXR, a company part owned by Czech billionaire Zdenek Bakala, has a roughly two-third stake in NWR.
